Trisha Yearwood's Lifestyle Empire

The real star of the Garth Brooks family: Trisha Yearwood's lifestyle empire rivals Martha Stewart

On stage, Garth Brooks is among country music's most dominant performers. But off stage, his wife Trisha Yearwood is the celebrity who makes things happen.

"I'm proud to be married to Trisha Yearwood, who is probably the busiest person on this planet," Brooks said during a press conference at the Toyota Center last week. "It's pretty good to be the queen's husband."

In addition to a singing career of her own — she performs a duet with her husband and several solo hits on the couple's tour, which concludes its 8-show Houston run Saturday night — and a new exhibit saluting her at the Country Music Hall of Fame, Yearwood has a hit show (Trisha's Southern Cooking) on the Food Network, several best-selling cookbooks, a line of non-stick cookware and, coming this fall, a new line of furniture, the Trisha Yearwood Home Collection.

It wouldn't stretch it far to call her the Country Martha Stewart, although her lifestyle brand has extensive crossover appeal.

"It's pretty good to be the queen's husband," Garth Brooks says.

"I'm amazed at what I'm doing at 50 years old that I never thought I would be doing," she said. "Things for me just happened. I moved to Oklahoma to be with Garth and the girls and I was looking for some way to be creative and I wrote this cookbook with my mom and my sister, and I never dreamed it would turn into anything. I think for me things just come along organically and I follow the path."

Before their first Houston concert last week, Yearwood talked with CultureMap about her thriving career and where it may ultimately lead.

CultureMap: You've got so much on your plate, with furniture, food, singing all that. How do you prioritize what you do?

Trisha Yearwood: It kind of shifts. The first 20 years of my career was music because that’s what I put my energy into. When Garth retired and we decided to be together and I moved to Oklahoma, I didn't know what I was going to do. He retired. I didn’t.

"You figure out what is important to you. And for me it’s always been family."

The first book came out just because I was trying to find a way to be creative at home. When the cooking show came along, I said, "I can’t do a cooking show; I can’t leave Oklahoma," and they said, "We’ll come to Oklahoma." So I said OK. (The show is now filmed in Yearwood's kitchen in Nashville.)

So you figure out what is important to you. And for me it’s always been family. And trying to find a way to do what we love to do and make sure we take care of each other.

CM: Have you been surprised by the success of the cooking show?

TY: Totally surprised. I’m amazed. I resisted it for a long time because I wasn’t really sure I wanted to be behind the counter, saying, 'Now you add the butter.' But they said you can do anything you want.

We were one of the first shows to show outtakes.We make fun of ourselves. We show our mistakes. I'm not a chef; I’m a home cook. I think I cook the way most people do, so I think that’s probably why people respond because most people haven’t been to culinary school. So most people want to know, "How can I make this and make it easy and get it on the table by 6 o'clock?" I think that’s the appeal.

CM: Do you have a favorite recipe or foolproof recipe?

TY: I always tell people who think they can’t cook to make the meatloaf in the first book because it’s got four ingredients, so you really can’t mess it up.

And my new favorite thing is Skillet Apple Pie. I got this recipe from a little lady in south Georgia, a friend of mine. I said, "Can I put this in the book?" She’s typically Southern, she said, "Oh honey I’m embarrassed it’s got pre-made pie crust."

"Most people want to know, 'How can I make this and make it easy and get it on the table by 6 o'clock?' I think that’s the appeal."

You can put it together in five minutes. It tastes so homemade, it’s so good. That’s my go-to, if I have to put something together in a hurry. I found out at 9 o'clock last night before I was getting on the plane that it was somebody’s birthday here this weekend that’s in our crew. So I said I gotta make something, so I made that pie. And that’s real life.

CM: Why did you decide to create a furniture line?

TY: Doing the cooking show has led to all these other lifestyle opportunities. The cookware was the obvious choice, it was released this spring. But the furniture line came calling and I said I don’t know. Let me meet the people.

I was on tour, I was actually in Austin and they flew from North Carolina to meet with me and I just liked them as people. I thought I don’t know how this will go but I really like them and I’d love to be in business with them.

The chief designer is a girl named Carol and she and I just clicked. I can’t sit here and draft out a picture of a table but I can tell you what I like about it or what I don’t like. I love that it’s a collaboration. Any time that I made a comment about it, it was adjusted to make it a little more like me. So when I walked in and saw the furniture at market in April, it all felt so like me.

It hasn’t hit stores yet, but the initial buy has been really promising. So I’m crossing my fingers on that too.

"A guy who will cook when you don’t want to, a guy who will load the dishwasher, clean the kitchen when he’s done, that’s a winner."

CM: How would you describe the line?

TY: If you know my music, if you know the show, you get a sense of who I am. So the furniture is not crazy expensive; it’s casual livable. I grew up in a house where you sat on the furniture, it wasn't something you looked at and said that’s really pretty but don’t sit on it; there wasn’t plastic on it. So I want it to be really comfortable.

CM: It sounds like you are the new Martha Stewart, the country Martha Stewart or however you describe it.

TY: I don’t know. The first cookbook came out of a love for cooking and not anything more than that. So I think as long as you do things that are genuine to who you are, then it works out.

CM: What kind of cook is Garth?

TY: He’s really great. A guy who will cook when you don’t want to, a guy who will load the dishwasher, clean the kitchen when he’s done, that’s a winner. He makes a really great warm pasta salad that is my comfort go-to. If I’m gone all day he’s like what are we doing for dinner? Do you want pasta salad? Yes. He’s a good cook.

Trisha Yearwood's Home Collection includes furniture pieces.

Courtesy photo

Trisha Yearwood's Home Collection includes furniture pieces.

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Houston 'plantrepreneur' opens vintage-filled shop in Old Town Spring

Mercantile and Plant Project Old Town Spring Bree Clarke

Courtesy of The Mercantile & Plant Project

Shop vintage, antiques, and plants in charming Old Town Spring.

Houston’s favorite plant maven is at it again — with a twist! The latest iteration of Bree Clarke’s wildly successful The Plant Project is slowing things down and stepping back in time. The Mercantile & Plant Project opening this weekend in historic Old Town Spring will delight fans who have long coveted Clarke’s signature — and woefully not for sale — antique and vintage decor found in her plant shops.

While plants will still populate the space, they take a back seat to vintage and antique goods that look and feel right at home in the 100-year-old bungalow that The Mercantile calls home. The bungalow has retained its original features, like the windows, columns, and wood floors, inviting visitors to view the space and the goods within as its own restorative environment.

Interestingly, the bungalow — along with two others — was transplanted from its original location in the historic Houston Heights neighborhood in the late ‘70s. After relocating the three bungalows, the owner, Ms. Brenda Miles (as she was known), operated an antiques store out of one, while renting the other two to other Old Town Spring businesses. It was Miles’ keen stewardship of the bungalows that allowed them to maintain their original features.

“It’s all original, and it was already green,” says Clarke. “It’s just the perfect little thing.”

During the design process, Clarke invited her Instagram followers to vote on a wallpaper for the signature selfie wall found in all of her stores as a fun way for ecstatic shoppers to pose with their finds. The winner, a beautiful flora, fauna, and landscape in blues, purples, and greens is “Vintage Chinoiserie Peacock Wallpaper” by Vreelike. Clarke also enlisted local artist and vintage clothing purveyor Lexi Landolt of Goldie’s Rodeo to assist with branding design and to paint these European-inspired doodles on the front door.

Vintage for sale

Shop art, books, lighting, linens, and other home decor — or up the ante with cut crystal and silver plate. Everything from rustic Americana to French Provincial finds a home amongst rattan and olde world fixtures in this trendy new outpost.

Like Clarke’s The Plant Project locations, The Mercantile will host community events like potting classes and other “make-and-take” activities as well as a future corner dedicated to her Antionette concept focused on bespoke perfumes and candle making — complete with vintage and antique vessels.

“I want it to be more vintage and home, and then have the plant aspect of it. I feel like there has been such a shift in the plant world over the last few years and plants are still the root of the business, brand, and my identity,” explains Clarke. “But designing, decor, and vintage has always been there. I’ve always had vintage with the plants and people have always been drawn to that.”

Indeed, the enviable vintage goods Clarke uses as her plant store fixtures, lighting, and decor have been central to her brand’s aesthetic, and jestfully frustrating for her clients who couldn’t buy them — this author included! Happily, everything in The Mercantile is for sale. There will still be an array of accoutrements for plant lovers, like whimsical pots and planters, plant foods, and leaf cleaners, but those with the proverbial “black thumb” will have more than their fair share to entice them.

“This mercantile is strictly the stuff where, if people like it, they can take it home,” says Clarke. “That’s what this one is.”

Spring roots

The Plant Project has had a huge impact in trendy urban areas like Montrose, plus two shops in The Heights (not to mention the Dallas location). So, one may wonder: why Old Town Spring? The simple answer—it’s home. The historic hamlet is minutes away from her mother and grandmother’s houses, with Clarke recently scooping up a “country cottage” of her own right in the neighborhood. As it happens, The Mercantile will be operated by the ladies of the family, right in their own backyard.

“I grew up walking through the streets of Old Town Spring and walking from my grandmother’s house to the crawfish festival; I’m just very familiar with it,” she says. “People come over here because they want that small town feel. We are all wanting to slow down a little bit. People are exhausted — mentally, physically, emotionally — and when I see people walking and strolling down the streets, everything is just laid back. There’s no rush to it. No one is just in and out of their cars quickly. People park and are just walking around, just strolling. I just wanted a place to stroll.”

Clarke’s love of vintage is hardly a whim. Her mother, who prefers to shop curated spaces in traditional stores, was never a fan of the long hours and sometimes less-than-sanitary conditions of the hunt. However, her best friend, Clarke’s “Aunt Karen” lived for it — taking Clarke along to thrift and antiques stores, vintage markets and the like from the time Clarke was 10 years old. From that point on, Clarke was hooked.

“My Aunt Karen would take me all over when I lived in Irving, Texas. She would take me to all of these places like Canton. Some of those same people from when I was 10 years old are the ones who source and get a lot of my stuff today, right in Canton, Texas.”

Sharing history

Courtesy of The Mercantile & Plant Project

Shop vintage, antiques, and plants in charming Old Town Spring.

Something that sets The Mercantile apart from similar concepts is Clarke’s sheer love of the game. Items in her store come with their own story and history, something that is decidedly absent from other places. Visitors to The Mercantile can expect a lesson in antiques, vintage, stewardship, and the like. For Clarke, the vintage trend isn’t a way to make a quick buck, it’s about sharing history with her neighbors.

“Vintage, especially here in Houston, is just wild. It’s such a trend and a craze and people love it — it’s just all over the place. But I feel that people don’t really get the connection of what vintage is. For instance, when I go to estate sales I build a relationship with the people who put the sales together. I have these real conversations with them, get to know them, get to know their stories and their history with things. I just feel like vintage connects people to one another during a time period when they couldn’t really connect and when they weren’t really connected,” she says.

“Hearing the stories of how they got these pieces or learning the difference between antique and vintage, just being able to show that next generation all of this. People see the cute stuff, the trendy things, and everyone selling on Instagram or wherever, but — like anything I do — I want to get to the root of it and share that side and that story. I think that Old Town Spring is the perfect place to do that.”

The Mercantile & Plant Project will celebrate its soft opening this Saturday, September 5 and will be open on Labor Day. Keep an eye on the store’s Instagram for details about its grand opening celebration in October.

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The Mercantile & Plant Project; 134 Main Street (Spring); Thursday, 11 am-5 pm, Friday and Saturday, 10 am-6 pm, Sunday, 12-5 pm

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